My 14th Presidential Election - A Common Theme

I have some memory of 14 presidential elections going back to 1956.

One of the common themes of most of those elections was an attempt by the media to paint either the Republican presidential or vice presidential candidate as unfit for the job.

It is entertaining to see the reaction of the media to John McCain's taking a page out of their own book.  That is what his comparison of Barack Obama to Paris Hilton is all about - McCain trivializing Obama.

The media is smart enough to know that it can't trivialize McCain as unready, and now it can't easily trivialize his running mate.

I watch NBC.  They are visibly outraged that their anointed candidate is being trivialized.  Their common theme is to call it dirty politics.  Somehow, it isn't dirty politics if they do it to Republicans in election after election, but they pretend not to see what they do as dirty politics, or even as political.